An old video showing a group of people attacking Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters is being shared on social media with a false claim that it shows people in Dwarka, Gujarat thrashing those who were campaigning in support of the BJP ahead of the impending Lok Sabha elections.
BOOM found that the video is old and not from Gujarat. The videos shows an incident that took place in West Bengal's Hooghly where Trinamool Congress MLA Asit Majumdar and his aides clashed with the BJP supporters during a rally in Chinsurah in 2022.
A clash two place between two BJP groups in Amreli, Gujarat at the end of March, according to a report by The Indian Express dated April 1, 2024. The incident reportedly occurred following a meeting aimed at resolving disagreements over the nomination of Bharat Sutariya for the Amreli Lok Sabha seat. The clash allegedly involved groups led by the incumbent MP Naran Kachhadiya and the sitting Amreli MLA Kaushik Vekariya on the night of March 30, following a meeting convened under the leadership of former state cabinet minister Bhupendra Chudasama. Western state Gujarat is set to vote for all of its 26 Lok Sabha seats in a single phase on May 7, 2024.
However, the viral video is not related to the above incident.
Several verified X users posted the video with a Hindi caption that translates to, "People campaigning for BJP in Dwarka, Gujarat were brutally thrashed by the general public... This is reprehensible..."
(Original Text in Hindi: गुजरात के द्वारका में भाजपा का प्रचार कर रहे लोगो की आम जनता ने बड़े ही जबरदस्त तरीके से धुलाई की .... निंदनीय है ये...)
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Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM debunked the same video in 2022 when it went viral with another false claim. We then noticed that the people in the video are sloganeering in Bengali and some of them were attacking a vehicle carrying BJP flags on it.
Following that lead, we ran a keyword search using the words "BJP clash West Bengal" on YouTube and found a Times Now news bulletin carrying the same video from August 6, 2022.
The news report stated that the TMC MLA Asit Mazumdar and his aides were involved in a clash with the BJP workers in West Bengal's Hooghly district.
The video was uploaded with a description, "West Bengal: Dramatic images are streaming in from the Hooghly District. When TMC and BJP members encountered each other in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, Asit Mazumdar said that he was driving home from Kolkata when his car was allegedly stopped by BJP supporters and attacked. In the meantime, the BJP is asserting that when they were holding a rally, Asit Mazumdar proceeded to assault them without warning."
We also compared one of the screenshots from the viral video with the Times Now news bulletin and found that both the videos are same.
An NDTV news article from August 5, 2022, reported that the clash took place at Khadina More in Chinsurah during a rally of the BJP.
Bengali outlet ABP Ananda also published a report about the clash carrying the same video at that time.
